Former President Trump sparked new controversy by pledging to ‘protect women’ whether they ‘like it or not’ as wide gender gap looms in Kamala’s White House race Harris.
While admitting that his own advisers had warned him to avoid insensitive language, Trump insisted at a rally that he would not back down from his offensive rhetoric against women or his policy positions on issues such as immigration or the right to abortion.
“They said, ‘It’s just inappropriate for you to say that,'” Trump said at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Wednesday evening. “I said, ‘Well, I’m going to do it whether the women like it or not. I’m going to protect them.’”
Harris responded Thursday by reminding voters that Trump supports banning abortion, a key issue that the Democratic campaign says drives its support among women.
“It’s actually very offensive to women (and) their right to make decisions about their own bodies,” Harris said before heading out on a campaign trail across the battlegrounds of Arizona and Nevada. “This is just the latest in a series of revelations from the former president about how he feels about women.”
The controversy erupted in the final days of a race that polls consider a toss-up and in which the gap between male and female voters has never been wider.
Most polls show Harris leading Trump by about 15% among female voters nationally, while he leads by almost the same margin among men. The gender gap is even wider among younger voters.
Women also vote early at a much faster rate than men, although analysts caution against placing too much emphasis on early voting numbers.
Trump’s campaign has focused on reaching out to men by making appearances on media outlets like Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has a huge following among young men. Harris has adopted a more inclusive tone and says she sends a message of unity across racial, sexual and political divides.
Given Trump’s well-documented problems with female voters, even Republicans suggest he should avoid getting more upset in the final days of the campaign, as undecided voters are making up their minds.
Nikki Haley, Trump’s primary Republican rival who later endorsed him, said the former president was making a huge unforced error by tripling the appeal of “bromance” with male voters.
She says she’s “on hold” to campaign for Trump, but he doesn’t seem interested in gaining her public support.
“I’m going to ask all of you to take all emotion out of this election,” Haley told voters Wednesday during a campaign appearance in support of a Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania. “That’s our job: it’s about the next generation.”
Many women say the damage is done, and Trump will know his verdict Tuesday at the polls.
“That comment is just infuriating,” former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a moderate Republican who supports Harris, said on CNN. “It’s extremely offensive and will swing votes.”
